In case anyone was wondering, it is still Spring out there, lest we get ahead of ourselves ahead of Memorial Day. Although I wouldn’t wish a rainy day harvest on our crew, it sure is nice to see the fields soaking up the rain, watering in the thousands of plants they’ve worked so hard to get into the ground over the past week. Luckily, everybody got to duck into the greenhouse to harvest something that we’ve put a lot of collective effort into since last summer—big beautiful Spring Onions!
Folks, I am very excited about these beauties, because they’re an example of a problem that we’ve set out solve, and a gap that we’ve wanted to fill over the course of many many years. Which is a friendly way of admitting that I have nagged Mark about this for the better part of a decade, and to his credit, he has put a lot of work into figuring them out for Wild Hare. There have been failures, there have been successes, there have been hours of hand weeding and a whole lot hitting the books and taking notes. That’s the thing—there are so many crops and ideas that we only get one shot at getting right in a given year, but in the interest of trying to improve upon what we’re able to bring to our community over the course of 48 weeks, we keep taking swings.
Here’s the thing. The local crop of storage onions tends to run out this time of year, just as we’re getting ready to fire up our grills, leaving us waiting less than patiently for the earliest Walla Walla Sweets to come on at some point in June if we’re lucky. This is why Spring Onions are so important! Back in the NY days, I got hip to the game of overwintered onions after my bosses came home from an early Spring trip to Spain and Catalonia one year, raving about the incredible Calcotada experience. It didn’t take long before I was burning onions in the backyard and slinging overwintered onions to several kitchens around the boroughs as if I’d been there myself. While we’re not growing proper Calcots at Wild Hare, we’ve got a beautiful handful of onion varieties to share with the CSA as we transition from Spring into Summer in the coming weeks, and they’re going to taste great with or without Romesco.
Enjoy the alli-yum-yums,
Katie
IN THIS WEEK’S FARMSHARES:
Asparagus
Green Garlic
Red Spring Onions
Red Radishes
Parsnips
Cosmic Crisp Apples
SEASONAL RECIPES & HELPFUL HINTS
ROASTED PARSNIPS & RADISHES - Williams Sonoma
SPRING PARSNIP & CARAMELIZED ONION PASTA - Dishing Up the Dirt
RADISH LEAF PESTO - David Lebovitz
ALISON ROMAN’S FERMENTED HOT GREEN GARLIC - Just Roots
ASPARAGUS SOUP WITH LEMON & PARMESAN - Once Upon a Chef
SPRING ONION POTATO SALAD- The Fast Recipe
GRILLED GREEN ASPARAGUS WITH ROMESCO SAUCE - Jose Andres
SPRING PANZANELLA - Smitten Kitchen
GRILLED SPRING VEGETABLES WITH PARSNIP POTATO PUREE- Gather and Dine